Peaches, apples may benefit from Deep South freeze

Icicles cling to oranges Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010, in Lakeland, Fla. Farmers spray their crops to help protect them against the cold temperatures. Temperatures in the area dipped into the mid-20's, and farmers are working to salvage millions of dollars' worth of strawberries and other crops. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
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Icicles cling to oranges Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010, in Lakeland, Fla. Farmers spray their crops to help protect them against the cold temperatures. Temperatures in the area dipped into the mid-20's, and farmers are working to salvage millions of dollars' worth of strawberries and other crops. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
/ AP

At least half of Louisiana's citrus crop is already picked, but farmers will have problems if temperatures drop to 22 degrees or below, said Alan Vaughn of the Louisiana State University AgCenter.

Growers with at least 4,000 trees will be able to get the labor to pick the rest and the coolers to hold the fruit for months, he said - but smaller growers, with a few hundred trees, don't have the labor or storage capacity. The fruit, uncooled, is good for about 10 days, Vaughn said.

"The small guy, if it gets too cold, he's just lost the rest of his crop," he said.

The cold comes at a bit of a lull in the production year. While there are some major crops at risk - Florida farmers have been scrambling to protect their citrus - much of the concern across the Southeast now settles on niche crops.

Farmer Eddie Faust was nervous about what he'd find when he peeled the insulated blanket off his strawberries once it warmed up again in southeast Louisiana. He figured some of the green berries he'd hoped to have picked and ready for sale for Valentine's Day would have freeze burn. He just hoped there wouldn't be many.

"It's going to be a wait and see thing," he said days into a deep freeze that had sent lows into the 20s, about 15-20 degrees below normal for parts of the region.

"This is the first in many years it's dropped like this."

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Associated Press writers Becky Bohrer in New Orleans and Dionne Walker in Atlanta contributed to this story.